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Steve Jobs' childhood home

Contrary to popular wisdom, Steve Jobs and his boyhood pal Steve Wozniak did not start Apple in a garage. Exactly thirty-five years ago on April 1st, 1976, Jobs and “Woz” founded Apple in an unoccupied room of Steve Jobs’ parents house in Los Altos (see a recent picture of the house. The house looks largely the same as it did in 1976). They soon moved to the kitchen table before expanding to the garage where the legend was born.

Steve Jobs was only 21-years-old; Woz was 26. How did two young men, working out of a garage, create a computer company that would change the world? I believe it’s because they never set out to sell computers. Instead Jobs and Woz wanted build tools that would help people unleash their personal creativity. Big difference.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 after a 12-year absence the company was close to bankruptcy. Jobs concluded his first major public presentation with some of the most inspiring words I’ve ever heard in a corporate presentation:

“You always had to be a little different to buy an Apple computer. I think the people who buy them do think differently; they are the creative spirits in the world. They are not just out to get a job done, they are out to change the world. We, too, are going to think differently and serve the people who have been buying our products since the beginning. Because a lot of times people think they’re crazy but in that craziness we see genius and those are the people we’re making tools for.”

See genius in your customers. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak can teach all business leaders a valuable lesson--See the genius in your customers. Your customers don’t care about your product, service, or business. They care about themselves and their hopes, dreams and ambitions. Help them achieve their dreams and you’ll win them over. How do you help your customers achieve their dreams? Sure, “listen” to them. But listening isn’t the same as “knowing” your customer really, really well.

Steve Jobs is said to maintain a “pixel level obsession” with the customer experience. Anything that is not elegant, uncluttered and easy-to-use doesn’t get his approval. This attitude hasn’t changed since Jobs was assembling circuit boards in his parents’ house. His goal was to help people change the world by making computers that were so simple and easy-to-use that everyday people would feel comfortable using them.

Why Steve Jobs doesn’t do focus groups. Since he knows his customers so well, Steve Jobs doesn’t do focus groups. He doesn’t have to because he understands his customers’ pain and frustrations. Sometimes his customers don’t even realize there’s a better way of doing something so he has to spell it out for them as he did when he introduced the iTunes Store in 2003. At the time few people wanted to pay for music because they were downloading music for free.

When Jobs introduced the iTunes Store he spent a few minutes acknowledging the fact that people were downloading music for free, but he also outlined their frustrations—unreliable downloads, unreliable quality, no previews, and “bad karma” because it was stealing. In return for paying .99 per song, Jobs would offer fast, reliable downloads, “pristine encoding”, a vast selection of music, CD quality sound, free previews, album cover art, and ability to easily download all this music to an MP3 play that “fits in your pocket.” Oh, he also added that it would bring “good karma” because it wasn’t stealing.”

When it comes to your customer, always remember that it’s not about you—it’s about them. Your customers are asking themselves, “Why should I care?” They are asking, “How will your product or service make my life better?” Help your customers fulfill their dreams and watch your sales soar.